Real Kyper & Bourne - Leafs Hour: Running Low on Regulation Wins

Episode Date: December 1, 2023

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee start with the Leafs' 4-3 shootout win over Seattle last night, another win outside of regulation, Marner's growing confidence, Matthews' concerning time-on-attack numbers, Knies getting benched and the diminished D-corps. Bruins radio analyst Bob Beers joins them (37:22) to tee up Boston's matchup against Toronto tomorrow, how they have gotten off to this hot start, Marchand adjusting to life without Bergeron on his line and their stout defensive unit.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

welcome into the real kipper and born show now kiprios justin born sammy mckee derrick brandeo and frank the tank baraska who by the way made his television debut just before our show on the raptors uh with uh the boys you say we dropped the ball by not having a player of the game thing. They got the chain, the Raptors chain. Yeah. We should really have something. I don't, like a belt or a helmet or something.

Really? Will that help our morale? Does it bring us, does it, would that bond us? I will say that my beer league team has like a hard hat, like a yellow one with like our logo on the front of it. And when you get that, it feels pretty good. It does. You haven't experienced it yet.

I actually won it last time. No. I own it. It's in my possession right now. You've won it? I've won it a couple times, yeah. But we're just three people. I don't suck that bad.

You can only give it to Brandeo that often. Yeah. Great, great observation. Yeah, great observation. We're glad you're aboard here on our Off the Rails Friday. Wherever you're watching or listening on Sportsnet 590, Sportsnet 360, and Sportsnet Plus from 4 to 6 p.m. And wherever you get your podcasts.

And remember on Friday, especially Fridays, we want to hear from you. Texas at 590, 590. We'll read them today in our final segment. Great show, of course, which means Doug McClain in about an hour. He has got so much because we didn't get him on last week because we had a condensed one-hour show based on Black Friday. Black Friday. Chicago Blackhawks.

So you know he's got all this pent-up frustration. So we're just going to say welcome Doug McClain in the second hour, and then why don't we go to the CAF or something and grab a bite to eat. Let him roll. Let him roll. Take over for about 10 or 15 minutes. I think he can win the Nyes argument that we thought we won one day. Hey, before we get into it.

I love listening to you when I'm on. The 2024 Rogers NHL All-Star Game will be expanded to a three-day event with the NHL all-star Thursday at Scotiabank arena featuring the Tim Hortons NHL all-star player draft, the NHL alumni man of the year honoring the 1967 Maple Leafs and the Canadian tire PWHL three on three showcase tickets to the all-star Thursday go on sale Tuesday, December 5th at 10 a.m on ticketmaster you can catch the action including the nhl rogers all-star game on

sportsnet fellas so that's coming up soon i believe that would be tuesday right so there you go next tuesday's tickets go on sale okay in about 30 minutes we're going to welcome in former nhl defenseman and radio analyst for the bostonins, Bobby Beers, will join us. And we'll tee up that game. But we got a lot of work to do between now and then. Because once again, we're going to follow up Tuesday's shootout win against the Florida Panthers with a Seattle Kraken shootout win. Yeah. You know how we take texts on Fridays?

Again, text us at 590-590. Shout out to Matt Whitaker, who's a regular listener of the show, a wissener of the show, if you will. A regular Whitaker. Yeah, he is. He says, boys, there's much to be concerned about, but the Buds have six regulation losses in 21 games, have killed 18 street penalties.

Mitch scored a hattieie and they're getting points on not at their best. It could be so much worse. Please discuss. I thought I'd come up with a positive glass half full there. There's some liquid in the glass. So do not bring that same Tuesday

slash Wednesday crap. I read that preemptively because I know what I have to say about last night and it's not all. Does it make you feel better that at least the first period felt a lot better than the first period against Florida? And we'll get into the second and the third period where they, many of them, including their best players, not Mitch Marner.

Went to sleep. I was going to say got schooled got absolutely destroyed crushed oh geez hey you're the analytics guys yeah you tell me what the numbers were because the numbers were not pretty no but it started well in the in the first period I mean not to come out of the gate incredibly uh cynical i mean i would hope so the seattle they're not the florida panthers boys no they're a team that you can kind of i thought the leafs look like the bigger stronger team they're able to push them around a little bit they're not like a team that's gonna look you in the eye and go toe-to-toe with you like the florida panthers like just to me like you should be dominating them in the first period

and the second period and even the third period because they're not very good. And the fact that's what hurts my – anyway, sorry to be so cynical. No, that's all right. But that's how I feel. I'm going to put the brakes on it for a little while. Okay, here we go.

And it's my fault because I should have steered this right to the – a better vibe. So let's start with the best vibe of the night okay okay mitch marner yeah that was good well yeah so you know everybody that was ready to run him out of town yeah i don't know how they feel today all they had to do is play with the team's best player john devarez and he's back he's back baby he was unbelievable last night He was the best player in the rink. He might have been the best player in the league last night. I'm not even being sarcastic.

He was so good last night. Just the confidence, the body language, even the feel of his shootout winner, and the edge work that, I don't know, if he misses, maybe you tell me he's too cocky, coming down the ice a little bit, but it worked, and it just, I think it reinforced how he's been the guy that drives the team.

Well, then we should have given him more heat for the team not driving anywhere prior to now. Oh, no, he did get a lot of heat. Yeah. He did. Yeah, it's, you know, one interesting thing, and this is, I wrote an article today, one of the things that stood out to me

was the Leafs, the number one, and I'm not saying his success was due to playing with Tavares last night, but Tavares has actually been better than I think we've given him credit for in this show. And one of the things, he's first in the NHL in puck battles won. The top five is like him, and it's Ryan O'Reilly,

and the type of guys you would think of as good like puck battlers. So certainly a couple of his goals last night, Tavares makes a good play, and that helps him out a little bit. And also, I think, points the finger at Austin Matthews that Matthews hadn't been helping out Marner all that much either. So different look for Marner. He gets more pucks finishes a few just a touch uh or at least follow up on his tavaris comment uh you put out a tweet on tavaris late in the first yeah uh who got smoked bertuzzi bertuzzi kind of got

cross-checked in what looked like the face in real time but he just kind of got him up here and yeah it was a big hit. It was a greasy but good hit. Took him off his feet. Guy got penalized for it. And then Tavares, unlike I've ever seen him do, just came flying in. Yeah. And who was it that he got? Number three? I don't know. Borgen. Just

laid him out. So I was at the game. Oh, you were? Yeah, I went to the game in the alumni box. So, you know, what kind of went to the game in the alumni box. Oh, wow. And so, you know, what kind of view we got there. Yes. And it's the first thing I noticed as well.

And I had to look twice, and it was Tavares. Yeah. Which I loved. Yeah. Loved. Yeah, that's great. And you just said it. You never see it you never see it and

just a little bit more of that that can kind of move around the core four gives the team a different vibe but it's clear that it's an act

that isn't necessarily a natural one for him. So... Did you see Matthews at all last night getting in scrums a bit too? Like I wonder if their coach had a talking to or whatever. They've had some collective... I hope they read my article. Some come to Jesus like, Hey, maybe we should kind of hang around some of these piles a bit

and stand up for one another. It's not easy. And listen, I'm going to nitpick a little bit here. kind of hang around some of these piles a bit and stand up for one another it's not easy and listen i'm gonna nitpick a little bit here oh boy here we go because i've lived it i know what it's like to be on a team that is close and protective and stick together now i give tavaris full credit for what we're just talking about, but I'm going to nitpick here. After he smoked who?

Borgen, Will Borgen. Borgen? Borgen, Borgen, Borgen. Just stay there. Don't leave. I can't say I didn't think the same thing. Don't leave. I thought it actually worked in his favor that Borgen didn't go back at him.

Don't leave the scene of the crime. You're the captain. You hit the guy. Within a split second, he backed off out of there, and there might have been 15,000 people that would have said, who was that? Well, I don't know. I can't tell.

If he just stays in there and just looks somebody in the eye and just says, you know, a little scratch of the forehead with the middle finger or an FU or something, it's way better effect. It's better. And it just doesn't come naturally

to him, but I'll take what we saw last night out of him. Love it. It's what you gotta learn to stick together. And that is, if you're going to go in there, John, if you're going to make that statement, take it in all the way, bud. Yeah. Wait for the cavalry to come in, get a scrum,

tell somebody not on my watch, and you can't come into our barn and do that. And it's for your buck. I think there was a moment when that happened where he kind of stopped and he looked and there was just no reaction to it at all. Yeah, Morgan didn't go back at him at all. No one went at anyone. It was just kind of like it was a...

Maybe everybody was just in shock. Honestly, I think he was in shock. He's like, what did I just do? I just ran this guy into the board semi-greasily. I think he was sort of surprised by it. But it was semi-greasily is awesome semi-greasily yeah yeah i like that thank you um so you mentioned uh you know i'm the stats guy or whatever so i did pull up the lines last night that matthews line last night got caved in holy smokes second and third period they actually looked okay in the first right they were moving it they're a couple

drop passes we saw saw some skilled plays. Yeah, if you like, you know, shot attempts, they had four shot attempts, four and 16 against. The Tavares line was 12, four and five against. You know, expected goals, they were at 20%. Tavares line at 80%, that sort of thing. So, yeah, it wasn't pretty. Matthew's just...

What's going on? What do we think? So, I wrote about him today honest question so the the theme of my article today was that i looked back the past three seasons his 60 goal season last year and this year two years ago there was 60 goal season he's first in the nhl in um the portion of his shifts that are in the ozone he's in the ozone for more than any other player in the league when he's out there. Last year, it's like, I don't know. Forget what it was. Like 70th or 45th.

And then this year, it's 145th. Like he's way, way down. So is it the team? Is it the defensemen? Marner's the same way. Marner's 178th in the league in this category. They have not. Now that, you know, Marner had a great night last night.

But on the year, they just haven't looked like. They're not spending any time in the league in this category they have not now that you know he's martin had a great night last night but on the year they just haven't looked like they're not spending any time in the offensive zone none that's the bottom line and if you're like a team that's going to be top heavy you need the top to be heavy you know what i mean so i i was trying to come up with answers and i'm struggling you You know, anytime teams play the Toronto Maple Leafs and you're going to spend 15 minutes in a team meeting, the majority of it's going to be circling number 34 and number 16. Yeah, but that shouldn't matter. No, it does matter.

Because they're finding different ways to stop you and it's up to 34 to find different ways to go against that. I just feel like they would have been doing that two years ago. He's still looking the same way to try to be successful, and you've got to constantly reinvent yourself. Yeah. I had the theories in my article are like, okay, so the D are not as good, so they don't move the puck out or break it.

That's the same for all the Leafs, right? That would affect everyone that their D are not as good. But also they don't move the puck out or break it. That's the same for all the Leafs, right? That would affect everyone that their D are not as good. But also, they don't forecheck as well. You know, we talked in the show about them not having a forechecking line, mate. You know, is it conditioning? Is it, you know, could they lose puck recoveries? I don't know. I just, anyway, there's something up there

and they need to start there to figure out their problems. I think there's a lot of parts to his game that he should start really focusing on, and putting the puck in the net shouldn't be his top priority. In nine games, though, he missed his goal, Kip. It's a pretty big priority. No, but he still finds a way to either cheat or be on an occasion the wrong side of the puck.

His shifts are too long. i don't know if you how long was he in on the three on three like there were times when he had the puck and we see any other star player and mitch is really probably the best out of this out of anybody three on three but they'll take it back and they'll regroup and they'll change this guy wants to stay out there one more time, one more time. And it's like, what? For what? To get your goal?

Yeah, probably. That'd be it. Yeah, but no good. No good. Well, I think three on three is not hockey, so I'm not going to kill him for the three on three. No, no, it's a byproduct of everything else. For sure.

Where you are on the details, the smaller details. And right now, I don't think he's spending enough time on them. So I think there are stretches throughout a lot of his good seasons where he's had pretty long slumps. For sure. And I think, yeah, you know, the term streaky, which you like to use a lot for Matthews, is kind of similar to any hockey player, really.

Like most hockey players are pretty streaky in terms of getting hot and not or whatever. But like this one just feels different than a lot of other slumps where it's just he doesn't have the puck doesn't the puck just feels a lot less notable no noticeable so i'm not really sure what's going like is it that so where is the regular season that he doesn't what are you they'll be there i don't know what it is what do we need to see when he's not scoring to be more noticeable no i need to see him score i need to see him score's not scoring to be more noticeable? No, I need to see him score. I need to see him score.

Yeah, it's certainly a big part of it. I mean, it's a huge, it's how they win. They need him to score. You know, he's first in the NHL in stick check takeaways. He's doubled his body checks per game. Now listen, he's doubled his hits per game from last year. 2.3 last year. He's at 4.6 this year.

He's still first in the league in blocked shots. Like he's, sorry, 4.6 this year he's still first in the league in block shots like he's or he's uh sorry he's six this year so he blocked shots takeaways takes away pucks throws the body like where is he in takeaways now first in the league first in the league in stick check stick check takeaways yeah yeah well you'd rather no it's fine it's really good yeah i don't want to okay it's good when you're winning and you're playing well and you're scoring. But they are winning. Right? They are winning.

They're not winning. They're winning. They're not winning. They're not winning. They're not winning. All right. Give me, okay, two points. Giving up.

Right? Literally. Yeah. Literally. They have ended up with a W in the column. They're winning. They're winning. Two games in a row, in fact.

Yes. Yeah. Okay. They're not winning. Joseph Wall is winning. Well, he's been good. No, he's been it, Sammy. He's been it.

For sure. He's the real deal Holyfield. I agree wholeheartedly that they don't look very good. There's just no way to sit here and tell you that they do but to the point off the top of the show that while they're sucking and not looking good they are still managing to win games which they're not what the Oilers were a week ago they're not what the Flames were a week ago I told you guys right from the get-go that they will getting points for this team will not be a problem to get them to the dance. Which is?

Which you guys kind of paused a little bit a week ago. Okay. But that's not what this is about from here on in. It's just about getting yourself best prepared to look different to win three rounds. Yeah. And, I mean, you know, it'd be really amazing if they did that but it's hard to believe out there there's been a lot of evidence of them not doing i know you know one thing that

stands out to me last night is like we were texting sammy i think he was like after the second when they were up 3-1 and it just felt like one of those nights they were going to win 8-1 like they were just they're such a better team. Seattle's not physical in any way that should intimidate them. They're not as talented in any way. It just felt the Leafs were at home. Marner had a cut three at that point. It just felt like they were going to run away with it.

Yeah, and then they started working harder than the Leafs. Yeah, that's probably it. I don't know. It's just this year, they haven't had those games where you're like, you can really just take the foot off the gas and say, it's up 5-1. We're just going to run this out. I've never in, like, what, five,

six years have seen a team spend a minute and a half or two minutes in their own zone and not touch the puck. Like, there were long stretches against Florida and there were long stretches against Seattle where they can't touch the puck. Like, there were long stretches against Florida and there were long stretches against Seattle where they can't touch the puck. And if they had it, they lost it.

I know. They're in their own end. They don't break it out the same. They are spending way more time. The numbers bear it out, Kip. They're in their own zone a ton. Okay, let's go to Sheldon. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Let's go to Sheldon Keefer, our first Kippers Clipper.

One on what's it going to take to win a regulation game? I'm sure thinking about it too much. You know, we've been in this situation a lot and getting asked

about it every single day. And for good reason we're getting asked about it, right? Because, you know, we haven't found a way to get on the right

side of these things. But the other day, this is a really hard league to get points in. And just look before I came in to talk to you fine folks. There's 23 teams below us in the standings right now. And we haven't played our best hockey. So we're in a pretty good place while we continue to work through the things that we have to improve upon. And the points that we've accumulated to this point are not nothing. They were doing okay.

Oh, don't follow that clip with that. That shook me up. I think Sheldon said all the right things there. Like, you know, we haven't played well. The points are buying us time to sort these things out. 7-2-1. There's only the Rangers, L.A. November?

Is there a difference? Ten games. Oh, last ten, yeah. I think only the Rangers are better, and they're right there with the Kings and the Capitals as 7-2-1. Hypersonic secret group chat no one can ever find. But it just, it really doesn't match up with the optics of what you've watched the last little while.

How much of it is just, you know, with Matthews and Marner and the lull with Nylander and is it fatigue? Like, they're being leaned on so so much especially with some of these top guys in defense too they blow a two goal lead last night with brodies on the ice room it's like they're being leaned on so hard wow it's like night after night they're going to they've played 10 extra periods uh they're playing a lot of hockey the the 3-2 goal by seattle was yeah or camp lets him walk in off the wall and then he goes inside on riley and shoots yeah and like i'm watching riley and

riley does that he sags deep he does sag deep but there's also riley playing 30 minutes yeah two nights ago and i don't know what he finished with but to maybe sammy's point a little bit, come on. Morgan can't play 30 minutes, and you can't expect him to be your best defenseman every night or at the top of his game. Is that a theory with Matthews, with Marner, about how many forwards in the league play more than them? The one thing, I think they're eighth and ninth in the NHL in forwards to you.

Really? Yeah, they've dropped quite a bit. Interesting. I should look today. Okay, well, there you go. Thank you, um so the other thing that stands out to me so wanted to give tavarez a little bit of love as someone who's winning a lot of pucks and getting his line better tyler bertuzzi has um carried the expect the line he's been on has carried the expected goals for nine straight games or something like that like his line has been the best line the Leafs have had for a good run here. And I really think that that is noteworthy too,

is that that has helped the Leafs get by. The Leafs are 7-3-2 in their last 12, only two of them in regulation. Those wins. But Bertuzzi's been a huge reason they're getting points out of these games, even though he's not getting a ton of points. He's not getting a ton of points. And you assume that maybe he can get on a run at some point but right now he probably isn't projected to have more than maybe a 40 point season maybe 20 goals could he

be cheap for the leaf and that's not that's not going to get him 5.5 million times five i bet if the leafs went to him right now and said you know made him an offer it would they could could they get him by low right now because the underlying numbers are good on Bertuzzi. I wonder if they could get him. I'm sure he knows that. I'm sure his agent probably has a pretty good idea. It's just random radio host.

I suck at hockey. He's just like, you better take this tiny deal. True. All right. Do you want to hear Sheldon talk about Mitch Marner? Yeah, let's do it. Let's go. He looks confident to me.

Played with authority. Obviously, two power play goals going to get him going. But that's just, to me, that's part of it. When you're feeling it, all of a sudden it starts to come to you. Breakaway goal for him, like that's vintage Mitch Marner. You know, breaking away like that and capitalizing and again authority in the shootout. So that's a great sign for us. Yeah.

Agreed. I wonder if with Mitch, if he just felt a little bit of the effect of Willie Nylander having so much success that it made him start thinking about where is this all heading? Interesting, yeah. In terms of is one of us going i can imagine and i i tell people this all the time you know in my era when a guy would walk in the door and i'll never forget when luke robitaille signed i don't know a 22 23 million dollar contract with the new york rangers how excited we were for him and how we forced, guilted him into a big lunch that day

and just all of that. And then there's this new era with these kids today and they do the math in their heads and they're happy for their teammates, but it's the first thought in their head isn't, I'm really happy for you. It's how is this going to affect me? i'm really happy for you it's how how is this going to affect me and well yeah because you're dividing up a pie instead of there being

and with with willie going from this this guy to you know has all the uh potential in the world to be a star to people saying now he's arrived he is a star and the leafs what are you going to pay 11 12 million dollars for him and i'm just wondering wondering if there's a part of him that said, am I going to be the odd man out soon? Yeah. I mean, I think that's possible. He does seem, you know, he's aware of the market. Oh, yeah.

And, you know, I don't want to say emotional, but just in tune to. I think he's more emotional than, or at least he's got that... Sensitive. Sensitive emotion that I think the others don't have. Yeah. They don't show it as much, because even his body language, and Kelly Rudy last Saturday talked about

how he sagged a little bit if the puck didn't go his way. He seems to wear things a lot more than the other guys i've seen this sentiment a few places in leafs twitter it's like jeff viet and steve dangle talking about how mitch marner is a guy who doesn't not care he's a guy who cares almost too much and i think that's a good point that you can't care less when you sincerely care the way someone who grew up in this market and has always kind of coveted the leafs you can't turn that off the amount he cares so when it's going well you know you're on top of the world when it's not i can see it being hard okay so willie leaves sweden as one of the greatest superstars that ever walked the planet for the toronto maple leaves and now he's had a couple of down games, and Mitch is back up again. If I asked you to pick one guy to keep

and one guy to get rid of, who would you pick? We all, for the record, kid, we all said Marner. Did you? Yeah, we all said Marner. I mean, at the same money, yeah. But even when he was hot, Willie, we all said Marner. Right? Didn't we? Yeah.

I said Marner. You said Marner. I said Marner, yeah. The crazy thing right now is how much, you know, Neil Anders has been like, at times, a 16 times a 16 17 18 minute guy for the leafs his last five games are 23 22 26 25 23 and a half minute wow like they're using him in a way but there was times when it when it was and if you look at some double shifts over the last 10 days, two weeks, most often Sheldon would pick Willie to play with the third or fourth line than Mitch or anyone else. He bumped Willie up. So he came probably at the expense of Mitch Marner's minutes too

in the last 10 days, two weeks. Which he would like, I would think, right? Typically think he plays too much and that's... Yeah, and I thought, you know, up until the last three games, Willie was worthy of that. Yeah. To the point where it's like, if there's a guy on this team that you want out there to get a goal, you're probably going to go to Willie.

But boy, that line, you know, Willie's cooled off, Matthews doesn't have the pop, and Nyes is just struggling. Is he not? Like, I've been saying it for a week now. Was it the drop pass late in the third i think i think they stopped using them after that he didn't go back out yeah that was yarn croc started playing on that line which i i bet that happens next game i don't think i don't

think niles will stay on that line you you guys know how i feel i'm too much i'm a huge fan but this was this was going to head that way at some point that a guy like that with that least amount of experience to go run shotgun with two 11 million dollar players

it's really hard it's really hard for a guy to come in there and feel like he can fit in while he's trying to figure out all the bells and whistles of this new league. Yeah. Do you want to listen to Sheldon Keefe? Yes.

Matthew Nyes, clip five. I think Matt's been like that line. I think he's been kind of up and down. If I'm remembering it correctly, I think Nyes got stuck out there for a really long shift at one point in time. I just thought he wasn't quite recovered enough. So he went with Jaren Kroc in that spot. But like we've talked about, he's got a great size and skill set

that clearly shows that he should be in this league. Yet he's a young guy that's learning the league and figuring it out. Some of those moments show up, and he's not the only one. Nick Robertson's trying to find the league and figure it out as well. That's part of the process of becoming an NHLer, especially for those that don't spend much time,

or in Nye's case, any time in the American League. Just say you benched a guy. Yeah, he won't throw anyone. It's just like, yeah, we benched him. Last season on our show, we did spend a lot of time talking about a left side that's kind of like the weakest out of your 12 forwards and kind of leaning that way a little bit because two of them are rookies you

know because you know if you got bertuzzi going as you just mentioned moments ago but now behind bertuzzi he doesn't know what to do on the left side yeah well we're sitting here every day we got no person you know we can't hurt anyone's feelings or anything. I wouldn't know who to put there. I guess Yarncroft. I've thought about it. Like, I don't know who you would play there right now, given Nyes kind of needs, like,

it looks to me like you need to back off him a little bit and let him. When Nyes struggles or makes a bad play, I told you, put Gregor up there. Yeah, okay. Get him for a period or a few shifts or something he's not gonna hurt you no absolutely not and frankly he ran over a couple guys again like this guy cares he works he finishes his checks he can skate he can hit the side of a barn now i honestly feel like what am i missing with gregor like am I, why do I see him wrong? Because I think he's so good.

I think he's very effective. I think he is a guy who can play top six. Well, yeah, but you can't go up there. I feel like it's one of those things where. Whoa, whoa, whoa, easy on the top. That's what I mean. Well, that's, but that's how I feel when I've only watched him play 20 games. Let's just get him up there for a couple of shifts in a period.

Yeah. Like, I don't think he's a top line, like an Austin Matthews for the year partner. But like, I don't think he's a top line like an Austin Matthews for the year partner, but like I don't think he's any less effective than Yeah, let him wet the beak. Let him get up there a little bit. Right. Feel it. Anyways. Okay, decor struggling. Let's go to Sheldon Keefe to wrap up

what he thinks of his blue line. We've asked a lot of our guys. We're asking a lot of the guys that are playing more minutes. You're asking a lot of the guys that are playing more minutes. You're asking a lot of the guys, you know, like the Lagas and Timmons and Benoits of the world that are playing more and playing in different spots. So we're asking a lot there, but the guys are managing it. You know, is it a factor? I think some of our, you know, the two goals we gave up in the third there,

to me there's some soft defending there. Like we just don't close quick enough. Perhaps that's some of that stuff that you're seeing in those moments. To me, we've got to manage those situations better. But credit to the guys, whether it's the situation we were in tonight with six or, you know, how many times through this season we've gotten guys injured and had to play with five and the D core has

for the most part responded and found a way to keep us hanging around in these games. It's not like anybody's coming back anytime soon. Klingberg, we're going to wait and get an official report. Lilligren's got that high ankle sprain.

Someone mentioned to me Gio had successful surgery yesterday. It's going to be a while. So it's going to be a while here. I don't think many fans last night when I was at the game were too happy to hear Zdorov. Zadarov. Zdorov. Zdorov, you know that. Zdorov is inadarov. How do you... Zdorov. Zdorov, you know that.

Zdorov is in Vancouver when everybody felt like... For nothing. Somebody was coming from Calgary. A fifth and a 2026 third. Yeah, I think it's hard optics for me. Like, I know he's not great, but I think your circumstances sort of precede you. You look at what your decor is now, and there's no way he's not immediately better than the three guys.

Right. Right? Yeah. Someone had mentioned to me that didn't sound like Calgary's ownership was in any hurry at all to do Brad Tree Living any favors. That doesn't sound encouraging for Tanev and Hannifin. I mean, it doesn't surprise me at all. Wasn't the prettiest finish there, was it, with him?

No. Yeah. No, it was not. So I don't know what that does for Tanev, but I know that there are multiple teams calling a lot on Tanev, including Brad and the Toronto Maple Leafs, and I don't know. Tanev is a much better fit. Brad would have a great relationship with Craig Conroy,

but Craig's got to go back to people upstairs and say, this is the deal that I have. And they got to say yes or no. Yeah. Well, that would be bad news. If the one team that had available D-men who were good were untradeable with. All right. Let's hit a break for beers.

Okay. We got. What are we doing? Bob beers. Oh, I thought we were getting beers. Okay, we got... What are we doing? Bob Beers. Oh, I thought we were getting beers. Oh, yeah, sorry. It's Off the Rails Friday. Maybe we should do a segment called Beers and Beers. I would do a beer.

I don't think I'm eligible to be on that show. That is Bob Beers, the former NHL defenseman we are speaking of and radio analyst for the Boston Bruins as we tee up the Big Bad Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs Saturday night, stick around more real Kipper after the break. Get smarter.

When you listen to hockey talk the hockey PDO cast with Dimitri Filipovich, subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Kiprios, Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee, as we wait for Bob Beers to join us, talk about the Boston Bruins. Let's just go down this path of what we uh started uh just before the break and that is the news of zadoroff being traded to the vancouver canucks and uh leaving the leafs still looking for help yeah and i'll just start by saying

i get what zadoroff could bring you which is that element of of size and a presence also shoots in the net sometimes yeah no listen yeah but he's also prone to a few mistakes yeah and thus the didn't cost you a first round or a second it cost you third and a fifth yeah flames didn't look too heartbroken round or a second. It cost you a third and a fifth. Yeah. Flames didn't look too heartbroken last night when they beat the Stars. I think that was part of this, too. I think there is, you know, he had asked for a trade,

and they weren't very happy about it. I think there is some addition by subtraction. Let me just say that they wanted him out of the room. Yeah. Calgary did. Yes. That's why it happens. Nobody gets traded in November. Yeah.

So he's not perfect. And I think you have to have a real strong room. And maybe that's Vancouver now with Hughes as the captain and a better JT Miller and Petey. Maybe that's the case there. He can just kind of fall in in place there. But I got to think that there's going to be a growing list of available defensemen as we start seeing teams slowly fall off here.

I don't know if it's the worst thing for the Leafs not getting in on Zdorov. Can I ask you this, though, both of you? Yeah. Can the Leafs continue to accumulate points with who they're running out there for half their decor? It's not perfect, Sammy, but

that's for sure. Maybe I don't necessarily think that asking Joe Wall to save you every night is the right blueprint to accumulate those points, but you assume if his play falls off a little every night is the right blueprint to accumulate those points. But you assume if his play falls off a little bit and instead of an A-plus performance every night,

he can give you a B-minus and you can still find ways to points. For points, the problem is right now, based on what we saw the last two games, the Leafs cannot accumulate points unless he is an A-plus. Yeah. You know, I think for the leafs if they don't change something on the back end or find something with their top guys i think the wheels could come off for a stretch of games you know i don't think it's impossible that they go on a run where they're

unlucky right now they're a plus three goal differential team and somehow they're like ninth in the nhl or whatever their third in their division and closer to the Boston Bruins than they've ever been, you know, in years right now, despite the process being off. So I don't think so, Sam, like, Oh, we're waiting on Bob beers who I think is going to be here in just a minute. Okay. Got him.

All right. As promised, let's welcome in Bob beers, former nhl defenseman doing a terrific job as the radio analyst for the boston bruins beersy with the best last name probably in the history of the game how many times have you been told that bob uh they used to make fun of me when i was a kid right but now it's like you know i wish you had your last name. We love your last name. I can't tell you how many times some of the linesmen called me Eddie, though.

Do you remember Eddie Beers? Oh, of course. Yes. Yeah. I think he played for Calgary and St. Louis. Yeah. Was he in Atlanta playing once upon a time or no? Say that again?

Was he in Atlanta before they moved to Calgary or was that way after? Good question. I'm not sure. I know he went to university at Denver. I never met him. I don't know him, but not a common last name, so I wish I got to know him a little bit.

Well, listen, we appreciate it. We know you're coming off of a call last night where I think Boston fans are used to, and that's a Swayman shutout and a convincing win here, but it slid a little bit. But overall, Bob, let's just start with the thought that this was going to be a bit of a transition year with Patrice Bergeron gone and Krejci gone,

but how have they been able to do this through your eyes? Yeah, well, the first thing, Nick, is the goaltending. I mean, it's been outstanding all year. When it dipped a little bit, they lost a few games, and you saw the three losses in a row, and I think they're 6-4-2 in their last 12 games, so that's a far cry from the 9-0-1 to start the season. So they're probably somewhere in the middle of that.

They're a good team, but the goaltending has been outstanding. And the 1-2 combination of either order you want to go with, with Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ohlmark, have been really good. And those first 10, 11 games or so, they were stealing them a couple of games. There's no question. There's been a handful of games where the Bruins were by far the much better team than whoever they were playing against, but the goaltending has been excellent. Penalty-killing goaltending and then some timely goal scoring as well.

So it's been a combination of things. It's been real good, but, you know, it's a long season, and I think reality kind of set in here over the last week or so where they lost those three games in a row. They weren't too happy about it, and they want to make sure they did something about it. To be quite honest with you, Dan Jose is, I mean, we know where they are in the standings.

They're not a very good team right now. They're going to hopefully build, you know, for something in the future. But the Bruins did what they had to last night, but it was against San Jose. And, you know, tomorrow they've got to do it against Toronto, which can be a much different, much more difficult task. I don't know. If you listen to this show, we're pretty hard on Toronto.

We treat them like they're san jose sometimes um so who's you know who has stepped in in the absence of some of their big names there in boston from last year i know pavel zaka seems like he's having a pretty good season um who's who's filling the shoes so capably that the bruins are once again number one yeah i mean zaka and um and char Coyle I mean they've taken on a bigger role with you know so not only Bergeron and Krejci I actually was interviewing

Jim Montgomery the other day and he said I said you know you're missing your two top centers from last year and you know this and that and why have things kind of gotten away from you and he made mention of Tomasz Nosek, who was a really valuable part of the fourth line and a guy that

Montgomery counted on a lot in defensive situations. So you're missing three centermen from last year. And so you move Zach out of the middle. You've got Charlie Coyle there, who was basically the third line center last year. He's had a very good start to the year. And then you've got Charlie Coyle there, who was basically the third line center last year. He's had a very good start to the year.

And then you've got two young guys. You've got a kid from Ontario, Matt Patra, who's played well for the most part. And you've got John Beecher, who came out of University of Michigan. He played for Providence last year in the American Hockey League. So it's a big difference. And I think if the goaltenders weren't bailing you out, missing some of those centermen that you had that knew the system, that played it very well, that embraced the system,

embraced their roles, it's been a little bit of a – I know that the record suggests that they've been really good, but I do have to emphasize it's been the goaltenders a lot. There's been other things. They've played well at times, but the goaltenders have bailed them out. It's still kind of a work in progress for them down the middle

and just incorporating a lot of new faces into the lineup this year. We're talking about Beers, who's helping us set up the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs for a hockey night in Canada Saturday night. As far as Brad Marchand goes, how would you assess his first quarter of the season? It has to be a big adjustment with no Patrice Bergeron, but still the same look, still the same feel from Brad? You know, I love him.

I know that people in Toronto and people around the league probably don't like him as much, but he's a guy that just cares so much. And I think he's putting a lot of pressure on himself right now. You know, he's played with Bergeron since 2010, 2011. They've been, you know, attached at the hip. And, you know, they've always been on the same line. You see one guy out there,

you see the other guy out there. It's all the time. And now it's a bit of an adjustment. Now he's the captain and he puts a lot of pressure on himself. And I think when he puts

a lot of pressure on himself, he tries to do a bit too much. And that's, at least, that's what I'm seeing right now. And obviously I'm on the outside kind of looking in, but I do see him too much. And that's, at least that's what I'm seeing right now. And obviously I'm on the outside kind of looking in, but I do see him every game. And I've seen him over the years. That's what it looks like to me. He's still an elite player, but, you know, he puts a lot of pressure on himself and to

help the team the best that he can. And that's kind of what we're seeing right now. I don't know if he would agree with me, but I think he would deep down. He's hoping to get it going here a little bit. He's had some chances. It hasn't really gone for him. He had a really good chance last night on a one-timer from the right-wing circle.

He had a couple of other opportunities. But I do think that when he is in a situation where he's not producing that he even puts even more pressure on himself and and that's what he's trying to kind of fight through right now you know when i look at the bruins roster kind of top to bottom the decor is just so good and that's it's rare in the nhl to be able to have you know six pretty good d-men or let alone six very good D-men. But the guy who interests me most is probably Charlie McAvoy. I can never tell, is this guy in the star status tier of defenseman

or he seems like someone who still occasionally makes some glaring errors. Tell us about his season as a guy who's been over 50 points a couple of times. How has he looked on the back end for the Bruins? Pretty good. Not quite where he needs to be, but pretty good. So they made a little change last night, not only to the forward lines, but they made a couple adjustments on the D pairs.

And they put McAvoy with Hampus Lindholm, kind of a pair that they feel that they can help each other get going in the right direction, if that makes any sense. They put Matt Grisly with Brandon Carlos. So a little bit of a change, and it doesn't always go like that. Sometimes they change it up a bit because McAvoy plays a top power play and then Lindholm plays a second power play, and sometimes when you come off those man advantage or shorthanded situations,

it takes a couple of times or a couple of rotations to get everybody back together. But, you know, they played together last night, and I think that they can help each other. I think McAvoy's game is just, it's, when he's really on, it's strong. I mean, he's physical. He had that suspension earlier in the year, and he actually talked about it a bit coming back.

You know, he was a little reluctant to throw that big hit that he's capable of. You know, the open ice hit. You know, he knew that he made a mistake there on that hit. I think it was Ekman Larson from Florida. But, you know, he can be – he's a game changer when he's on his game. And he's getting there. It's close. It's close.

And him and Lindholm can be a really strong pair together. I'm curious what they do tomorrow night. They don't have the last change against Toronto. Do they keep those two together? Do they split them up in case there's an icing or whatever the case is and you want to make sure that you have the right people out on the ice. So I'm curious what they see or what they do tomorrow. We'll find out a little bit more tomorrow at the morning skate.

Beardsy, as far as the Boston Bruins and the Florida Panthers, we don't have to go too far to remember that amazing. Nick, don't. Don't even go there. Like game seven, overtime, Carter Verhege scores the one that makes the difference here. And yet we're watching both Florida and Boston run 1-2 in the Atlantic. In your mind, who is the team to beat?

In the Atlantic, in the East? Yeah, no, no, no. Yeah. Just okay. Boston's sitting atop, I think three points ahead of Florida, but like, who do you think ultimately between now and the trade deadline needs to make maybe a couple of adjustments? Like who's chasing who here? Or, or is it even, or do you see the boston bruins better deeper who's who's the

team to beat in the atlantic yeah i i don't see them as as deeper and better i see them as you know there's a lot of teams that are right around 500 right now it's kind of a crazy season so far you see you see all those teams kind of right around that number. The Bruins had that 9-0-1 start, and since then they've been 6-4-2. So you know what I mean? If you get those runs, then you kind of distance yourself maybe from some of the other teams. The Bruins have played Florida twice. They actually played really well down in Florida last week or a week and a half ago.

Florida was the better team at the beginning of the game, and Lena Solmark was outstanding, and then the Bruins really had some traction there and shut them down in the third period, and I think they won that game 3-1. You know, we've only seen Toronto once, and that was at the TD Garden in Boston. Good game.

You usually have good games against them. Well, looking forward to it. Tampa. Yeah, Tampa was good. Tampa was good against the Bruins recently. They actually took it to them a bit offensively, and the Bruins were off defensively. And I think it was a 5-4 game or something like that,

and Tampa won in overtime. So the usual suspects, I guess that's my answer for you. And Detroit has beaten the Bruins twice. Looking forward to it. Sorry, I've got to cut you off. They're telling me I've got like 40 seconds to go here. But really appreciate your feedback. Have a great call tomorrow night.

We're really looking forward to the game. Thanks for doing this. So am I. Thanks, guys. Bob Pierce. Thanks, really appreciate it. Who's chasing who? Who do you like, Boston or Florida right now?

As more of a complete team. I'd say Florida. Florida's impressed me the most out of any team I've watched. That Boston decor's too good. Still too good. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty close.

So good measuring stick for the Toronto Maple Leafs tomorrow night. Russian poor beauty. When I say, I know the timing. I figure things out. When I say bye-bye, I know the timing. I figure things out. When I say bye-bye. It's off the rails Friday. I fell asleep at the wheel. You know, give me a break.

All right. We're not going away for long here. We're going to take a break and we're going to welcome in Doug McClain. Oh, my. I can't wait to hear this one. I know. Been a bit. Off the rails Friday continues after the break.

Real Kipper and Bourne.